Naked & Famous Natural Selvedge Skinny Guy – Denim Review

Naked & Famousneeds little introduction. The Canadian brainchild of Brandon Svarc has been pushing out affordable–and off the wall–selvedge fits since they hit the scene a few years ago. The 10oz. Natural Selvedge Skinny Guy is a perfect summer jean: simple, vintage hue and, most importantly, lightweight.

Fit

I wore a size 32. I’m about 6’1″ 175 pounds (maybe 180) and usually wear a 32 x 32 in jeans I don’t want to double cuff. The inseam on these is long, really long. The cut is flattering and slim enough true to size without being ridiculous. True to form, this fit would probably be best for those on the slimmer side with average proportions.

These may not be for you if you’re quads are swole. I’ve never considered myself to be in Naked & Famous‘ wheelhouse as I tend to drift more toward heritage, looser fits; but I’m quite impressed with these will be beating the crap out of them as summer descends on the deep south

Fabric

The fabric on these is a 10oz, natural indigo-dyed, sanforized Japanese selvedge. Like I said, it’s a perfect summer weight. It feels light and moves with your body, almost like it’s got some stretch to it. It’s probably going to fade quick. I put these on a couple weeks ago when it started to warm up and couldn’t take them off. I’ve maybe worn them 12 times and I’m already noticing some whiskering.

Exterior fabric warp.

Interior fabric weft.

Details

The construction and details are what you’d expect from Naked & Famous, chain stitching at the leg opening and button fly . The fly buttons and rivets are branded and they come with a N&F branded leather patch. There is exposed selvedge on the exaggerated coin pocket. This is made a little more conspicuous by the thick ID.

The construction feels solid for such a light denim. The pocket bags are pretty flimsy canvas, but that’s probably for the best for a summer jean.

Overall, you can’t go wrong with these if you’re looking for a sub-$200 summer jean. I could live without the huge coin pocket and the exposed selvedge, and I wish the inseam was a little shorter, but these are pretty minor concerns in the face of 90° days with 80% humidity.

Really pushing N&F lately… We get it. 4 articles and 1 fade friday all within a week. They are “innovative”

Cruel_Angel

If you don’t think N&F is innovative. Point out another brand that puts out as many fabrics a season as N&F. Give respect where respect is due. You’re looking at a brand that just 5 – 6 years ago had less than 10 jeans in the whole collection, now they put out 10+ new fabrics a season. I don’t see any other brands coming even close to that. And when they do finally bring out a new fabric, it’s usually attached to some crazy price tag.

driftwoode

I don’t think his point is that N&F is not “innovative” in the sense that they put out a number of different fabrics, but in the sense that most of what passes for innovation with N&F is really just a gimmick. Okay, so they have many fabrics; props for that. But when you consider that a number of those fabrics range from silly (scratch and sniff), to useless (glow in the dark), it’s hard to take them seriously.

Cruel_Angel

Weather or not people want to call some of their fabrics gimmicky is a topic of debate. Regardless, these are still innovative and push the boundaries. Not everything is for everyone, you gotta keep that in mind and have a sense of humor. It’s obvious that N&F does. Look at the vast majority of their releases, they are designed with the hard core denim demographic in mind. Models like the Japan Heritage, Okayama Spirit, Red Core, Rainbow Core, Elephant 1, 2 and 3, or the Hand Dyed Weft that was made for Blue Owl, just to name a few. Let’s give credit where credit is due. If making new denim fabrics were easy, then every denim brand would be doing it. It’s a shame that a few novel pieces turn some people away from the brand. If you’re a denim lover, weather the products are silly or hardcore, they should still at least interest you.

corey

There is nothing particularly innovative about last 2 jean reviews. To me it is quite clear that there is a a pretty heavy agenda to give N&F a lot of exposure on this site. It borders on absurd from time to time. I’m all for seeing how bizarre fabrics fade (like the recent ‘rainbow’ model), but do I need to see countless “weird guy’ and ‘skinny guy’ reviews? Every review says verbatim “The construction and details are what you’d expect from Naked & Famous, chain stitching at the leg opening and button fly” Great! The same fit that I already know about and the same construction! Some of these reviews actually feel more like not-so-subtlle advertisements to be honest, otherwise why would be hearing about the, by-comparison, average models from N&F?

Cruel_Angel

This is a denim blog, it’s purpose is to write about all things denim. If N&F has new products, then naturally they will write about them. If you go on a camera blog, naturally they will write about every new camera that is released. It’s not Rawrs fault that other brands don’t put out as much product. If they don’t put it out, it can’t get written about. So your complaint shouldn’t be why is rawr writing about N&F so often, it should be why aren’t other brand making interesting product for rawr to write about.

corey

cruel, maybe you work for N&F and cannot see the forest through the trees here. I just just a quick tally of Fade Fridays and saw that 21/160 have been N&F, or 13%. If you thrown in Unbranded it goes up to 27/160, or 17% of all Fade Fridays dedicated to ONE company. I really like this site but you are kidding yourself if you dont think there is a little bit of bias towards N&F when 1/7 of all fade fridays are dedicated to them. I wont bother to tally other statistics showing bias but I hope you see the point here. This is not reporting on “all things denim’ as you suggest…

Cruel_Angel

Rawr reports the news, the news isn’t going to cover all brands equally. Especially when one brand has that much more news to report on. 17% of all Fade Fridays isn’t a huge number, no doubt other brands have similar stats. Rawr is finding these images on forums, or people send them in. A lot of people wear N&F, as a result a lot of worn in images end up on forums, so they get posted here. Would you ever question why a sneaker blogs posts so often about Nike? Would it happen to be because Nike makes a lot of sneakers?? More so than the competition? This is not some crazy conspiracy, look at any denim form, N&F and Unbranded is often the most discussed denim brands.

corey

Actually no. N&F has far and away the most FFs. No other company comes close. I have no idea how many raw brands there are these days but it would not shock to find the number in triple digits would it? If this is the case, how can you not interpret 17% as anything other than disproportionate?

Cruel_Angel

I think I understand where you’re coming from now. Raw denim is a niche market, globally you’ll find probably 2 dozen (if that) relevant raw denim brands out there. I’d say less than 10 of them in the states. I’m talking relevant brands, not start ups, or mass market brands that also happen to have a few raw styles. If you consider just how few active brands that there are out there, then maybe this percentage will make more sense.

Corey

You can beat the drum of innovation and new releases with N&F but the percentages will never add up to me, especially when the last 5 reviews have been N&F, certainly a bit strange no? I am all about seeing new and innovative things on here, but every new N&F fabric does not fit that description (I would argue this release is bland by any standards, not just N&F). Perhaps it is just me, but I have no real need to have something reported on that is so easily accessible (or relevant as you might put it). Why? Because I can see, feel, and try on N&F in many shops. There are countless other well respected brands that I do not have any access to, for which a review or impression would be helpful and wanted.

boogie with stu

Ummm…Gustin?

mf051404

I like the color of these

Model Citizen

One of these days I need to get a pair of light weight summer jeans. I wouldn’t willing to spend as much money as I do on other jeans, these would be a decent option at $160, the color is just different enough to be interesting too. In terms of the amount of N&F news this site churns out, at least as far as reviews are concerned, I’m fairly certain that companies are sending Rawr or its writers products to review, so if N&F is sending them a lot of jeans, why wouldn’t they review them? I’m sure if another company submitted the same amount of products for review they would get a similar amount of coverage here.

Chris

Had a pair of the N&F 10oz. Yes they are super light weight but be aware, if the pants are too tight at the waist, its going to cause the fabric to stretch out near the button fly area. Wore them for about 2 wks and you can see the white stretch marks. Maybe im fat (which i got true to sz).. maybe the material is too thin.. but if you get this, would recommend sizing up one. On a side-note: emailed the guys at N&F about the issue i had with the 10oz denim tearing up by the button fly and till this day(about 2 months) I have not gotten a response from them… No longer going to support N&F denim. Pretty poor customer service especially from a brand that has such a high price point. I expected better…

Model Citizen

“Pretty poor customer service especially from a brand that has such a high price point. I expected better…” um, a high price point? You get what you pay for, and N&F has some of the lowest prices out there aside from their sub label, Unbranded. Maybe their price points are high by your standards, but a relatively low price point is the back bone of their business model. I’ve owned a pair of N&F jeans and there were multiple construction issues, most of them weren’t that big of a deal, but they were still there. I didn’t feel cheated because I only paid $160 dollars for 14.5 oz denim, which is not very spendy by raw denim standards at all. I wouldn’t buy any of their jeans again unless it was a seasonal pair like the ones reviewed here, but they were a good introduction to the world of raw denim. If I ran into the same problem with jeans that cost $100 more I would be less forgiving. Your waist band issue doesn’t seem like anything they should, or would, be concerned about at their price point.

chris

Well the point im making was…. Im still a “customer”. I wasn’t asking for my money back or a new pair. Just as a paying customer, the least you can do is respond. Yeah, they probably get 1000’s of emails a day.. but if your company doesn’t stand behind their products and have poor customer loyalty, then peace out. Never buying anything from them, unless its dirt cheap haha. Just saying that i learned my lesson.

chris

this is what im talking about

FRINGECLASS

i got a pair of these a few years back because i wanted a lighter colored pair. theyre very weird looking and shiney (like in the first pick under fabric). they also bagged out and became pretty baggy somehow, the whole jeans did. i didn’t wear them more than 2 weeks and that was my first and last time ever buying nf.

MJ

have a pair of these and its really a great thing, very soft and breathable and looks fine, shiny. great for summer.

fabric is very gentle. it’s quite obvious that if you get these jeans sized down and tight on you. >> you’ll get issues like that guy with photos.

NF is VERY interesting brand and it’s always good to read about their news here.

they really don’t have perfect craftsmanship, and I suppose that’s not their goal.